Tag: mobile phone use

Improving relationships and behaviour in schools

Guidance published to support pupils and teachers

New guidance to empower schools to take action on mobile phone use and next steps in ongoing work to improve relationships and behaviour in schools has been published.

The ‘Behaviour and Relationships in Schools’ action plan, and targeted guidance for teachers to manage mobile phone use in schools, set out steps to be deployed at the national, local and school level over the next three years in response to concerns about relationships and behaviour in schools, including:

  • supporting the effective recording and monitoring of inappropriate behaviour
  • encouraging schools to reinforce a positive ethos and culture
  • providing guidance and support to ensure schools can embed relationships and behaviour policies which set clear expectations of relationships and behaviour

The new guidance on mobile phone use makes clear that while it is for individual schools to determine what action to take, head teachers are empowered to take the steps they see fit, including a full ban on mobile phone use in school if that is their judgement.

Aside from impacting behaviour, a growing body of evidence shows mobile phone use also impacts on learning. The Programme of International Student Assessment (PISA) 2022 data showed that almost a third of 15-year-olds in Scotland and across all Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries reported being distracted using digital devices in most or every maths class – and around a quarter reported being distracted by others using digital devices.

During a visit to Stonelaw High School in Rutherglen, Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth said: “Since the last action plan on relationships and behaviour in Scotland’s schools was published in 2017, our children and young people have experienced periods of significant challenge, including a global pandemic and a cost-of-living crisis which is causing real difficulty for families across the country. There is no doubt this has had a major impact on their schooling and how they learn.

“Improving relationships, behaviour and attendance in schools is one of my top priorities as Education Secretary. We have been working jointly on this with key partners such as COSLA and SAGRABIS since I was appointed and this new action plan contains a series of steps to be taken which will ensure that both pupils and staff are safe and supported.

“It takes an evidence-based approach to responding to the relationships and behaviour challenges faced in our schools and has been informed by the Behaviour in Scottish Schools Research (BISSR), which heard from nearly 4,000 teachers and support staff, as well as discussions with a wide range of stakeholders including teaching unions at the three behaviour summits.

“While it is clear that the vast majority of pupils in our schools continue to behave well, there are undoubtedly growing behavioural issues associated with mobile phones.

“This new guidance empowers head teachers to take the steps they see fit for their school to limit the use of mobile phones, including a full ban on the school estate if they feel that is required and I would encourage teachers to take all the steps they feel necessary to combat these issues.”

COSLA Spokesperson for Children and Young People Tony Buchanan said: “Ensuring children and young people feel supported, safe and ready to learn is of vital importance to Local Government, and we need to make sure schools are safe and welcoming places for all.

“We have worked closely with the Scottish Government and our partners across education system to develop the action plan and guidance published today.

“We will continue to work in partnership to enable the provision of the best possible support, in and out of school, so that children and young people to get the most out of their learning.”

Acting Stonelaw High School Headteacher Vicki Rice said: “We were delighted to welcome the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills to our school. The Cabinet Secretary took part in discussion groups with our staff and pupils who were given a valuable opportunity to talk with her about these important issues as part of their work and study on personal and social education.

“We discussed our work earlier this year with our parents and pupils about excessive phone use and the impact that this can have on learning. This work helped inform our plans for this session to protect the learning environment by limiting phone use in certain areas of the school.

“We will continue to work with our pupils and their families to ensure that this remains supported.

“This fits with our wider efforts to create positive relationships and behaviour right across our school. We know that getting this right for our learners means that they feel safer, more included, respected and supported.

“This in turn helps create strong relationships between our learners and staff and helps improve everyone’s wellbeing.”

Commenting on the publication of the National Action Plan on Relationships and Behaviour in Schools and mobile phone guidance by the Scottish Government, Mike Corbett, National Official Scotland for NASUWT – The Teachers’ Union, said: “While NASUWT is frustrated with the length of time taken to produce this National Action Plan, we have nevertheless engaged in good faith with the Scottish Government, shared our members’ current experiences on managing pupil behaviour and advocated strongly around how they might be addressed.

“We are encouraged by the recognition that a range of approaches and consequences are required given that restorative approaches to poor behaviour do not work for all pupils and cannot be the only tool available to schools when responding to incidents of abuse and violence.

“We need to see better recording and monitoring of behaviour incidents in schools as an essential part of ensuring consistency and measuring progress and improvements over time.

“We very much welcome that the principle of serious consequences for serious misbehaviour, up to and including exclusion, where necessary, has been accepted.

“The Scottish Government must make it clear that serious misbehaviour will carry serious consequences if any plan is to secure a safe and orderly environment for teachers and students.

“Given the recent riots in other parts of the UK, the acknowledgement that more work is needed to support schools in addressing racism and racist incidents, along with other forms of discrimination such as misogyny, is welcome.

“We know that mobile phones can be used as a tool to bully and harass fellow pupils and teachers, as well as distracting pupils from their learning. We therefore welcome the guidance from the Scottish Government that school leaders can take steps to limit or ban the use of phones in their schools if they see fit. However, to be effective, addressing the use of mobile phones should form part of joined up whole-school strategies on managing pupil behaviour.

“While we are pleased to see that the Action Plan intends that schools will be offered support to adopt the recommendations within it, including suggested approaches and exemplars, it is disappointing that the Scottish Government has not as yet committed any additional funding, time or resources to schools to support this work.

“Teachers and school leaders are already dealing with excessive workloads and constrained budgets. Implementing the recommendations of this action plan is too important a task to be simply added to schools’ already lengthy to do lists. Ring-fenced time and funding is needed.” 

Relationships and Behaviour in schools action plan

Cycling and mobiles don’t mix: Peer calls for law change

Mobile use while cycling should be banned, says peer

A new call from Baroness McIntosh of Pickering has highlighted a loophole where cyclists can still legally use mobiles while in the saddle – even though motorists cannot.

The former MP wants a law change so cyclists are prosecuted for the offence of using a phone – the same as car drivers.  Presently there is no specific offence for a cyclist using a phone, but a minister pointed out cyclists can be prosecuted for careless or dangerous cycling with fines of up to £2,500.

The peer says she has recent personal experience of being in danger from a cyclist using a mobile.  She claims a cyclist was on the wrong side of the road using their mobile phone with one hand, while she was attempting to cross over to the Houses of Parliament.

The Baroness’ plea follows Highway Code changes in January that introduced a ‘hierarchy of road users’ ranking the most vulnerable to harm, such as cyclists and pedestrians, and placing the greatest responsibility on car drivers for the safety of other road users – giving cyclists greater priority over vehicles at zebra crossings and junctions.

Lady McIntosh also asks why the code’s Rule 149 to ‘exercise proper control of your vehicle at all times’ bans mobile phone use yet does not apply to cyclists and e-scooter users. A further law banning handheld mobile use for car drivers came into effect on 25 March.

A leading cycling and motoring insurance comparison website, Quotezone.co.uk, hopes the new law on using mobile phones will come into effect equally across all road users.

Greg Wilson, Founder of Quotezone.co.uk comments: “It makes sense to review mobile phone use for all road users given the zero tolerance approach to motorists brought into effect at the end of March.  We should embrace any and all efforts to make our roads safer and using a phone while cycling can be particularly dangerous. 

“If the phone is there to act as a bike computer it should be attached safely with a hands-free product such as a quad lock or bike-specific phone case but even then, with the rise in the volume of potholes over the course of the pandemic, cyclists need their full attention to cope with the unexpected

“Cyclist and bicycle insurance can help protect the bike riders and other road users by safeguarding their finances from claims, covering medical expenses, personal liability, theft and damage to property but it can’t keep people out of harm’s way.  We need to respect the new changes to the highway code and look out for more vulnerable road users, this new law should help take that further.

“Bicycle insurance isn’t a legal requirement at present like car insurance is, but it should be something every cyclist has before hitting the saddle and it isn’t expensive, especially when using a comparison site to compare providers. For those with a bicycle under £1,000 it can even be added to their home insurance as a specified item.”

Quotezone.co.uk launched the UK’s first bicycle insurance comparison website with bespoke bicycle and cyclist insurance providers covering a wide range of products such as road bike insurance, electric bike insurance and courier bike insurance. 

Any use of hand-held mobile phone while driving to become illegal

Prosecution regulations tightened on the use of hand-held mobile phones at the wheel

  • government strengthening existing laws making it illegal to use a hand-held mobile phone while driving under virtually any circumstance
  • follows public consultation which found that 81% of people supported such a move
  • highway code will change making it clear that hand-held phone use at traffic lights or in traffic jams is illegal

Police will soon be able to more easily prosecute drivers using a hand-held mobile phone at the wheel after the government strengthens existing laws to further improve road safety.

It is already illegal to text or make a phone call (other than in an emergency) using a hand-held device while driving. Next year, laws will go further to ban drivers from using their phones to take photos or videos, scroll through playlists or play games.

This will mean anyone caught using their hand-held device while driving will face a £200 fixed penalty notice and 6 points on their licence.

Drivers will still be able to continue using a device ‘hands-free’ while driving, such as a sat-nav, if it’s secured in a cradle. They must, however, always take responsibility for their driving and can be charged with an offence if the police find them not to be in proper control of their vehicle.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: “Too many deaths and injuries occur while mobile phones are being held.

“By making it easier to prosecute people illegally using their phone at the wheel, we are ensuring the law is brought into the 21st century while further protecting all road users.

“While our roads remain among the safest in the world, we will continue working tirelessly to make them safer, including through our award-winning THINK! campaign, which challenges social norms among high-risk drivers.”

This follows a public consultation that found 81% of respondents supported proposals to strengthen the law and make it easier for culprits to be prosecuted.

Following the public consultation, the government will revise The Highway Code to explain the new measures. It will also be more precise about the fact that being stationary in traffic counts as driving, making it clear that hand-held mobile phone use at traffic lights or in motorway jams is illegal except in very limited circumstances.

There will be an exemption to the new law for drivers making a contactless payment using their mobile phone while stationary to ensure the law keeps pace with technology.

This exemption will cover, for example, places like a drive-through restaurant or a road toll, and will only apply when payment is being made with a card reader. It will not allow motorists to make general online payments while driving.

Mary Williams OBE, Chief Executive of Brake – the road safety charity, said: “Driver distraction can be deadly and using a hand-held phone at the wheel is never worth the risk. This important road safety decision by government, coinciding with Road Safety Week, is very welcomed.

“This news is particularly welcomed by families suffering bereavement and catastrophic injury due to drivers being distracted by phones. The theme for Road Safety Week is road safety heroes – we can all be road safety heroes by giving driving our full attention.”

The Department for Transport has also today published a study by Ipsos Mori about drivers who use mobile phones while driving.

Among other findings, the research reveals younger motorists are more likely to have used a handheld device at the wheel, supporting the focus of the government’s award-winning THINK! campaign, which works to boost road safety by targeting higher-risk, younger motorists and road-users.